Bubbe's visit

This week we had a special visitor. Bubbe came to visit from Atlanta. She and I had a really fun week. I got to spend a lot of quality time with her this week while Mom and Dad worked.

On Wednesday, she took me outside to play in the sandbox she gave me. It was the first time we've gotten to play there together, and I was happy to show Bubbe how to play in the sandbox. I also showed her how I can hit a ball off a tee with my bat and how fun it is to throw gravel and sand.

Wednesday night, Mom and Dad joined us for dinner at Hut's. I had a delicious grilled cheese sandwich. It was 2 for 1 burger night at Hut's so everyone else got burgers and we had extra for lunch the next day.

Thursday morning, Mom and Bubbe dropped me off at school. The teacher said what a wonderful kid I was in class. Bubbe was pretty impressed. On the way out, I showed her how good I am at working the water fountain, and how mad I get when I can't spend the rest of the day with it. In the afternoon, we went to the park and Bubbe chased me around the playground. She also gave me some new toys - a cell phone of my very own (so I'll stop stealing Dad's) and a firetruck that makes real siren noises. Bubbe said it kept making the siren noise on her plane ride down to Austin. She also gave me a doll that is supposed to get me ready for Peanut, but I found it pretty scary. Anytime someone brings it to me, I find someplace to hide. And she brought me some really fun new books! But my favorite new toy is a beach ball - I love throwing it around and chasing it at full speed, even though its almost as big as me. Bubbe also brought a present for Dad - some yummy Krystal's.

Friday, Bubbe and my parents and I all went to the parenting center for playing and Shabbat songs. It was really fun. They had a ball bath for the kids to play in, although I prefer to just pick up the balls and throw them. I really liked the songs - I even got up and started dancing and clapping to one of them. Mom had never seen me do that before. Friday afternoon, Mom, Bubbe and I went to Costco to pick up some groceries. They had some samples of macaroni and cheese that I LOVED. I ate so much that the woman passing out the samples eventually closed the sample booth to keep me from eating her entire stock, but by then I convinced Mom to get some to bring home with us. Friday night we had Rudy's for dinner - I love BBQ!

Saturday morning, Dad, Bubbe, and I took my wagon and went to visit Miguel. Miguel said I am getting very big. After my nap, Mom joined us and we all went to the Austin Botanical Garden. Mom and Dad had never been to the botanical garden before, so it was a treat for all of us. I liked all the space I had to run around, and I liked looking at the colorful flowers. They also had a cool waterfall and a dinosaur! Dad was nice enough to wear a hat for me to play with as well.

Saturday night, Mom and Dad went out on a date while Bubbe and I played with my new toys. Bubbe also showed me some new clothes that she got me. They included some very cute shirts and a few pairs of pajamas. She also brought me a cute shirt from Aunt Laurie. Just in time, because I'm really starting to grow out of my clothes.

Sunday, Bubbe had to go back to Atlanta. I really had a great time with her. Mom and Dad really appreciated having her around too. They got a well deserved break. In fact, Friday night they realized that they hadn't changed my diaper even once - Bubbe had handled all of my diaper changes for the entire day! It was sad that Bubbe had to leave, but she said she would be back in a couple of months, after Peanut is born. I can't wait!

Here are some pictures from our fun week.

Making Mom and Dad proud

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Today was a great day at school. Usually when Mom drops me off, she hands me to a teacher and I cry until she leaves, but today I didn't cry at all. When we got there, Mom put me down and I ran off to play with a puzzle. Without the crying, it took Mom a minute to realize she was supposed to leave.

At the end when Mom picked me up, I dropped what I was doing and ran to hug her, as usual. Then my teacher raved about me. She said not only am I good and an easy kid, I am really fun because I laugh and run around the whole time I'm there. She pointed out that I sit in my chair and listen really well, and said she tells parents if they're going to have another kid, to order a Mitch! The whole drive home, Mom told me how proud I make her.

We've been getting ready for the holiday Purim in my class. Last week I made a Purim shaker and today we made masks. My teacher was very impressed with my painting, which she said I did all by myself.

Every day, Dad leaves us to go to work as a software engineer. Here is an example of what he does all day. To start the game, push the "s" key. The goal is to help me avoid Matty and Peepa. To avoid Peepa, click the down arrow. To avoid Matty, hit the space bar. To start a new game, click on the green flag in the upper right corner, and then push the "s" key. Don't forget to comment on this blog to tell us what you think of it. Dad says he's open to suggestions. Good luck!

Growing like a (really cute and nice) weed

The past three days have been really warm. It's good we recently stocked up on summer clothes because I got to wear shorts for the first time this year! You would never know it's February. To celebrate, Mom and I played in our backyard each day.

Mom hopes the warm weather sticks around because my shorts fit me much better than my long pants. I've grown so much, the 12 month pants are too small and the 18 month pants are too big, but I've put on a little weight and Dad and Mom think I will grow taller again pretty soon. They can't believe how fast I grow! Once it's warm all the time, we'll need to go shoe shopping again, this time for sandals so I don't look silly wearing shoes and socks with my shorts. By that time, I'll probably need bigger shoes anyway - I outgrow them really fast!

To see pictures of my outside fun playing in my sandbox, filling my dump truck with sticks, rocks and leaves, and my newest trick - climbing in and out of a chair - click here.

Preparing for Peanut

Here's the grilled cheese video I promised you last week.

This weekend was pretty exciting because we are getting ready for the arrival of Peanut. The biggest deal was I moved to my big boy room! We had to make a few adjustments because I'm not ready to sleep in my big boy bed yet, and we had two twin beds set up in there. Mom and I went to Whole Foods Saturday, and when we came home, I was surprised to find Dad hard at work swapping my crib from the nursery with one of the beds in the big boy room.

When I first walked into the room and noticed one of the beds was gone, I looked around and then tried to sneak out by walking backwards, which Dad and Mom thought was pretty funny and cute. Once Dad moved the crib into the room, I slowly went in and spent some time reading and playing with all my toys. My first night in my new room started out a little rough, but after Mom laid down with me for a little bit, I calmed down and slept all night long. I spent more time playing and reading in there Sunday and my nap and second night went even better.

Otherwise, we've been spending our time preparing for Peanut in other ways. Dad's spending lots of quality time with me while Mom cooks and freezes loads of food so we won't go hungry when she has to spend all her time feeding Peanut. I've been doing my part by pretending my stuffed Curious George is my baby and pushing a little stroller around. Mom and Dad have started reading me books about what it's like to have a new baby sister and how to use a big boy potty. The potty concept seems kind of weird. I guess I'll figure that one out soon enough.

This weekend was also great because I got to eat lots of blueberries and we went to a party in honor of Daddy's hard work giving blood. He has given five gallons of blood. Mom says she doesn't understand how he's still walking around, and we are very proud of him.

19 months!

Today is my 19 month birthday! Hooray!

To celebrate, Mom and Dad took me to Amy's Ice Cream yesterday. I don't love ice cream, but fortunately Grandma and Grandpa sent me a huge carton of goldfish and Mom gave me some of those instead. After we ate, I ran around the park outside Amy's and played with some cows.

I also went to Tot Shabbat with Dad on Saturday morning while Mom got some work done. I liked hanging out with Dad. We same some songs, ate some snacks, and fit in a lot of running around.

Some new things I'm doing this week: dancing, eating whole sandwiches (video coming later this week), moving large pieces of furniture across the room, playing the tambourine, dressing up my Curious George (Mom's going to teach me how to diaper Peanut using George as an example tomorrow), walking backwards, and getting up and down my big boy bed with the greatest of ease.

Making a splash

This week, Dad gave Mom one of her birthday presents early. The present is I get to take swim classes! Tuesday was my first day. Our regular teacher was out sick, so a fun guy taught us how to jump in the water from the edge of the pool, blast off the side once we're in the pool, float on our fronts and backs, swim after floating toys, and - my favorite part - how to blow bubbles. We also sang the Hokey Pokey, Wheels on the Bus and Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star. Thursday we went again and met our regular teacher, Meg. She taught us even more things, like how to float around while hanging on to a noodle instead of our moms.

I am the youngest kid in the class by about six months, so most of the stuff is over my head (although to be fair, I didn't take a nap Thursday so I was kind of groggy because of that). At least this will teach Mom and Dad what to teach me when we go to the pool this summer. It'll be hard to take classes then because they'll have their hands full with my new sister, so we're glad we're taking them now, even if it isn't Mom's birthday yet.

I am still enjoying school, which is also on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Tuesday I cried when Mom left but after that I had a great time playing in shaving cream and spending some time on the playground outside. When we went into the building Thursday, I really clung to Mom, so she thought I was going to freak out when she left. But I surprised her - once we got into the room, I saw a toy I liked and took off, never even looking back at her when she said goodbye. She is really proud of how well I'm doing. Today we found out some bad news though. My class only lasts until May. We don't know what we'll do after that, but are keeping our fingers crossed that since our class is so new and they're kind of feeling it out, it'll become so popular they will decide to keep it through the summer after all.

Since I don't have any classes on Monday, Wednesday or Fridays, Mom has been trying to think of other fun things to do with our time on those days. Wednesday we went to the park. Since Mom is so big, slow and sore, she can't keep up with me on the playscape, so we took a ball with us that I could chase around instead. I had to hold the ball while I rode over in the wagon. I threw it out once in the beginning, but after that Mom reminded me to keep it in the wagon, and I did a great job. Mom thought the park was big enough that I wouldn't realize it's the same place with the playscape, but she underestimates my genius. After about 15 minutes of playing with the ball, I zeroed in on the big kid playscape. So before she drug me away, Mom went down the big slide with me a couple of times, which really made me laugh. I was sad to leave but excited to learn that we had another destination before we went home - our farmer Miguel, who I was happy to see (especially since we got some sweet potatoes from him - yum!).

Today we went to the Jewish Community Center again, but not to my class this time. Instead, we went to the Parenting Center, where we've been going the past few weeks. They have a big room with lots of toys and tumbling mats, and special guests - like Rabbi Baker, who visited today - come and sing songs and do mini-Shabbat services. My favorite part of that is eating challah. I also get to run around the open space, crawl around on the mats, see lots of friends, some of whom are in my class, and play with all their toys. It's fun and wears me out. Today my friend's mom even commented on how independent I am, which made Mom proud. She thinks I'm a cool little guy.

To see pictures of our swim classes and my day at the park with my ball, click here.

New family member

I am excited to announce a new addition to our family. No, not a new sister. A new uncle! My Aunt Laurie just got engaged to her boyfriend Jonathan, who will soon be my new uncle. Its very exciting. We are very happy for Laurie and Jonathan and can't wait for their wedding. Mom hopes they get married on a beach.

In other exciting news, I went to this park this weekend and found something totally fun to do. It's called a slide. Mom and Dad put me at the top of it and let me slide down. I loved it. I just kept climbing the stairs and going down the slide over and over again, laughing the entire time. Dad put me on a bigger, steeper slide, and I'm not quite sure I'm ready for that one yet. I'll stick with the fun, short, curvy slide for now.

To see pictures of us at the park and me reading my fun new magazine, Babybug, that Uncle Daniel sent me for Hanukkah (thanks, Uncle Daniel!), click here.